Trademark registration

Final artwork arrived yesterday for the Olive Aubrey brand identity, which is required for the factory production of the foot-stamp - the branding on the insole of the shoes. It also included this blow-your-socks-off print design (I quite literally leapt out of of my chair when I opened the digital file).

To someone "not good with forms" and used to having a professional legal department, applying to register the Olive Aubrey trademark online myself felt rather daunting, but it proved to be quite straightforward. You need a brand name, a list of what you want to sell, and clear illustration of your brand identity in a digital format (logo, colours, symbols, fonts).

It may be tempting to think that registering your brand doesn't matter before you've started trading at any scale, but basically it helps prevent you unintentionally infringing someone else's brand, which could lead to inability to trade or at the very least duplicate set-up expenses further down the line; a footstamp in a shoe can cost €80-€200 with each factory. But in the long term, trademark registration helps to defend your brand from attempts to copy or 'pass off' once you become a global brand. Bring it on.